'Tempest' Gets Venice Invite & Skedded

UPDATE: Disney announced today that the Touchstone pic The Tempest directed by Julie Taymor is now dated for December 10th exclusive and December 17 for limited expansion.

Taymor has her hands full trying to get Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark to Broadway this upcoming season. But she’ll detour to Italy, where her film The Tempest is set as the closing film of the Venice Film Festival. Taymor’s Shakespeare adaptation stars Helen Mirren, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina, Chris Cooper, Djimon Honsou, and Reeve Carney. She set the latter to play Spider-Man in the pricey Broadway musical with music and lyrics by U2’s Bono and The Edge. Venice has bookended its fest with Taymor and the opener Black Swan, the Darren Aronofsky-directed drama.

Taymor becomes the second filmmaker counting themselves lucky to have Disney distributing a Miramax-made film. The other is Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, which opens in January and received a rousing response during a presentation by Guillermo del Toro at Comic-Con on Friday. Neither del Toro nor Taymor had to await the never-ending attempt by Disney to sell Miramax assets. Taymor’s pic gets released by Disney in December 10 in exclusive engagements, and goes to limited expansion the following week.